The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28427.
Today I had my pfinal Pfizer (until they decide we need a booster). I do not seem to have any ill effects, fish R3 prosopagnosia.I could certainly do without any impediments to wrestle this Vlad to the ground, but it submitted in the end.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MY TRUTH |
What’s not real? Defending habit, I’m saying it is (2,5)
|
| An envelope (‘defending’) of RUT (‘habit’) in MYTH (‘what’s not real’). | ||
| 5 | ATTEMPT |
Comic patter not right — starts to make tasteless crack (7)
|
| An anagram (‘comic’) of ‘patte[r]’ minus the R (‘not right’) plus MT (‘starts to Make Tasteless’). | ||
| 9 | DURER |
Oscar avoiding comparatively humourless artist (5)
|
| D[o]URER (‘comparatively humourless’) minus O (‘Oscar avoiding’). | ||
| 10 | IN THE DARK |
Safe from the flood — keeping daughter oblivious (2,3,4)
|
| An envelope (‘keeping’) of D (‘daughter’) in IN THE ARK (‘safe from the flood’). | ||
| 11 | LOVEMAKING |
Sex? Nothing doing! (10)
|
| A charade of LOVE (tennis, ‘nothing’) plus MAKING (‘doing’). | ||
| 12 | GLEN |
Vale! Leaving disheartened, having failed (4)
|
| An anagram (‘having failed’) of ‘le[avi]ng’ minus its middle letters (‘disheartened’, although the extent of the heart is not defined). | ||
| 14 | THIS INSTANT |
Wrong! Isn’t that easy going round now (4,7)
|
| An envelope (‘going round’) of SIN (‘wrong’) in |
||
| 18 | PACKED LUNCH |
Meal that, for Spooner, needed something alcoholic (6,5)
|
| A Spoonerism of LACKED PUNCH (‘needed something alcoholic’). | ||
| 21 | IRAN |
Vlad crosswords reportedly finish off country (4)
|
| The best I can suggest is I RAN[t] (‘Vlad crosswords reportedly’, with ‘crosswords’ fancifully as use cross words) minus the last letter (‘finish off’). | ||
| 22 | ROLE PLAYER |
Royal ‘leper’ under pressure — he’s not himself (4,6)
|
| An anagram (‘under pressure’) of ‘royal leper’. | ||
| 25 | PRINCETON |
Romeo in fix around college and university (9)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of R (‘Romeo’, radio code) in PIN (‘fix’) plus C (circa, ‘around’) plus ETON (‘college’). | ||
| 26 | ERASE |
Cancel culture’s ending? Heartless construct (5)
|
| A charade of E (‘culturE‘s ending’) plus RA[i]SE (‘construct’) minus its middle letter (‘heartless’). | ||
| 27 | NANKEEN |
Comedian’s back, one with incisive material (7)
|
| A charade of N (‘comediaN‘s back’) plus AN (‘one’) plus KEEN (‘incisive’). | ||
| 28 | IN STORE |
Coming on, tries to be inventive (2,5)
|
| An anagram (‘to be inventive’) of ‘on tries’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MODULE |
Working method required to cover large part of course (6)
|
| An envelope (‘to cover’) of L (‘large’) in MO (modus operandi, ‘working method’) plus DUE (‘required’). | ||
| 2 | THRIVE |
Flourish of trumpets at the start — king entering queen’s home (6)
|
| A charade of T (‘Trumpets at the start’) plus HRIVE, an envelope (‘entering’) of R (rex, ‘king’) in HIVE (‘queen’s home’ – queen bee, that is). | ||
| 3 | UNREMITTED |
Item turned up unbroken (10)
|
| An anagram (‘up’) of ‘item turned’. | ||
| 4 | HOICK |
Nothing gained by rustic cricket shot (not one for purists) (5)
|
| An envelope (‘gained by’) of O (‘nothing’) in HICK (‘rustic’). | ||
| 5 | ATTENTION |
8! That’s early in the morning for some into raves (9)
|
| A charade of AT TEN (‘that’s early in the morning for some’) plus TION, an anagram (‘raves’) of ‘into’. | ||
| 6 | THEN |
Next time — what about November? (4)
|
| A charade of T (‘time’) plus HE, a reversal (‘about’) of EH? (‘what’) plus N (‘November’, radio code). | ||
| 7 | MEAT LOAF |
On record join Bread singer (4,4)
|
| A charade of MEAT, sounding like (‘on record’) MEET (‘join’) plus LOAF (‘bread’); for Michael Lee Aday, known by the stage name MEAT LOAF. | ||
| 8 | TAKE NOTE |
Accept some money for watch (4,4)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation | ||
| 13 | ASPHALTERS |
Like changes round pub — they work on the surface (10)
|
| An envelope (’round’) of PH (Public House, ‘pub’) in AS (‘like’) plus ALTERS (‘changes’). | ||
| 15 | ILL-GOTTEN |
Telling crook about books (probably stolen) (3-6)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of OT (Old Testament, ‘books’) in ILLGTEN, an anagram (‘crook’) of ‘telling’. | ||
| 16 | SPLIT PIN |
Leave home carrying penny metal fastener (5,3)
|
| An envelope (‘carrying’) of P (‘penny’) in SPLIT (‘leave’) plus IN (‘home’). | ||
| 17 | OCCASION |
Event in Illinois accounted for uprising (8)
|
| A hidden reverse (‘uprising’ in a down clue) in ‘IlliNOIS ACCOunted’. ‘For’ is along for the ride. | ||
| 19 | DYNAMO |
Bundle of energy upset a lot of the same nurses (6)
|
| An envelope (‘nurses’) of YNAM, a reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of MANY (‘a lot of’) in DO (ditto, ‘the same’). | ||
| 20 | FREEZE |
Suspend band on radio (6)
|
| Sounds like (‘on radio’) FRIEZE (‘band’). | ||
| 23 | ENNUI |
News in Brussels on current malaise (5)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of NN (‘news’; N is ‘new’, so we have two of them here) in EU (‘European Union, ‘Brussels’) plus I (usual symbol for electrical ‘current’). | ||
| 24 | ACHE |
Hard to stop virtuoso for long (4)
|
| An envelope (‘to stop’) of H (‘hard’) in ACE (‘virtuoso’). |
This was hard work. A tale of 4 corners. I found the bottom half easier than top half. Solved NW corner last.
NEW: SPLIT PIN.
Favourites: IN THE DARK, ENNUI, PACKED LUNCH, ATTENTION, THRIVE, DURER, MY TRUTH, THEN (loi).
Did not parse PRINCETON apart from R = romeo; DYNAMO, IRAN, THIS INSTANT although part of it looked like an anagram to me at the time.
Congrats on your jabs, PeterO, our lot here are bumbling somewhat. And yes this was a bit of a wrestle, not sure why, looking back. I think some of my early ins were Durer, in the dark, Iran, erase, module, dynamo and so on. Indeed none of the rest look too gnarly either. Still took the best part of a couple of hours over coffee and toast. The ‘needed’ in the Spoonerism was curly, and in hoick I couldn’t see the hick for the oick for a minute. And I didn’t stop to think about ennui.. quite neat. Enjoyable, thanks both.
Had the same experience as grant@2 – a bit of a struggle but the difficulties seem to vanish once you’ve got the answer.
I thought LOVEMAKING was the best, and you can take that any way you want.
Two worthy brain-benders in a row! Spring is here. Thanks, Vlad, for today’s contribution. This rated 4-out-of-5 on my personal difficulty scale Many fun clues – IN THE DARK, PACKED LUNCH, & PRINCETON – to name but three.
PS: As I plow though prize puzzles from the start of the century, several of you appreciated my recommendation of one set by Araucaria. In the past couple of days I’ve worked on a successive couple in 2003, by the same master. They are both outstanding, and gave great satisfaction on completion. They were on the tough side and both were highly themed – even theme-free-me could not miss them – one helped the solving, the other did not. If you want to share the experience, try 22,785 & 22,791 – I identify and access these old puzzles via Google.
As my alma mater appears at 25a, a mere six weeks before what would have been my 25th reunion if reunions weren’t still a virus no-no, I can’t not comment on this one. [Hip! Hip! Rah Rah Tiger Tiger Tiger sis sis sis boom boom boom bah! ’96! ’96! ’96!]
It went relatively well for a Vlad for me, which is to say that there was nothing I didn’t eventually get.
I have never heard of a cricket shot called a hoick. I was also going to guess that “split pin” is a Britishism, and on looking it up it turns out that it is, but I didn’t know the American term (cotter pin) either. I have seen the object, and I would call it “that doohickey there.”
Congrats on the vax, PeterO. We got our second shots recently too–mine a week ago, and my husband’s on Tuesday.
…though reading the clue again, it looks like he may have intended not the Serious Hardware thing called a split pin, but the basic stationery object Americans call a brad.
mrpenny@5,6 Here in Canada, I vaguely remember calling the paper fastener a split pin, but I haven’t seen one in 50 years. It’s even longer since I saw a doohickey.
gif@2 How curious: Durer, dynamo and erase were among my last ones in – glen was the last.
I found this a good deal easier struggle today.
rodshaw@4 You can find old Xwords here – is that what you mean?
Thanks PeterO and Vlad
A cotter pin here fastens a bike crank to the crank-axle thingy, quite a different beast from a split pin.
This one was a challenge, and I could not parse either DYNAMO, IRAN or THEN, despite getting them from the clue.
I had always thought that Meat Loaf’s real name was Marvin Aday. Apparently he went by both Michael and Marvin.
Thanks Peter and Vlad.
Failed to parse THIS INSTANT (trying to use “wrong” as the anagrind, as Vlad no doubt intended), or IRAN. Revealed HOICK, which in retrospect I didn’t need to, but names of unconventional cricket shots are not my specialist subject. Anyway, I did better with this than the last Vlad.
[Split pins as stationery? (pause for Googling…) Oh, those things. Part of my job as an archivist involves unfastening bundles of old papers, and split pins are a hassle: always contorted from long use, often rusty, and leaving ugly ragged holes in the paper.]
Interesting to see MEAT LOAF show up. Jim Steinman, who wrote all the songs on Bat out of Hell and more, died just a couple of days ago. I assume it is a coincidence not an obscsure tribute.
I’m always pleased with myself if I finish a Vlad – although I guess I should wait for Roz to post before I get too carried away 😀 . He’s definitely, for me, a wavelength setter and, today, we were aligned. A day of so many favourites. In particular, I thought there were some very inventive clues to the short solutions. GLEN, IRAN (which I parsed as PeterO) and THEN were all very clever. And nice not to see ACHE clued as an inclusion.
Some lovely surfaces and constructions for some of the longer ones. IN THE DARK is neat and the Spoonerism for PACKED LUNCH made me smile. I enjoyed the definition for ROLE PLAYER and both ENNUI and ERASE are nicely topical. COTD is a toss up between two cracking clues: LOVEMAKING is inspired and ASPHALTERS is a lovely creation with a cunning definition.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO
I really enjoyed this; a lovely witty creation and easily my favourite of the week. Having initially feared being Vladded to death (my first pass-through filled in only 2 down clues and no acrosses), a lot of helpfully crossers lit the way forwards and I finished with the delicious NW corner where pretty much every clue is a gem: MODULE and THRIVE my LOIs and also my favourite clues of the day.
A minor nitpick on the cluing for GLEN which seems to be less than accurate.
Thanks, Peter, not least for properly parsing DYNAMO for me.
Boffo @15: PeterO was also not convinced by GLEN. The only obvious criticism would seem to be the lack of indication of the extent to which ‘leaving’ is disheartened. If a more complicated assembly included an element thus clued, I’d be inclined to agree but here we know we’re looking for a four letter solution and ‘leaving’ is seven which indicates the extent. Admittedly, I had the L as a crosser which helped with the confidence. And, due to that wavelength thing, there was no way I was going to take Vale! at face value. (maybe I was helped with the recent Valley diction pun)
Mostly fun.
Like many of the contributors, I didn’t parse IRAN so thanks PeterO for this.
I haven’t previously come across ‘under pressure’ as an anagram indicator (is that an anagrind?) and I was really surprised to see ‘up’ used in the same way.
A fun end to the week. Thanks Vlad.
Hard work needing a lot of help. Thought DYNAMO was a great surface though.
SPLIT PIN broguht back memories of school exams and the dreaded Tresury Tags which I could never get the hang of.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO!
Paul@13, I briefly thought Jim Steinman was going to be a theme since I got MEAT LOAF early on. Can’t see any others though, and I did think it would have been impressive to have put something together that quickly! He was never my cup of tea, but so many of my mates liked him that his music is seared into my brain through enforced exposure and it would therefore have been quite a helpful theme!
Thoroughly enjoyed this one as is though.
This was a bit of a struggle in places but solving it all correctly eventually was a much-needed confidence booster for me after abandoning yesterday’s German word-fest with barely half completed and suffering a very rare defeat at the hands of today’s Times 15×15 setter.
I really liked the PACKED LUNCH spoonerism, very good. (Has it been done before?) And the clever MEAT LOAF with the surface suggesting David Gates and the 70s supergroup.
yesyes @17: I think we’ve discussed “up” as an anagram indicator before (3d). Chambers includes for “up”, both “amiss” and “in an excited state; in revolt”. For the former, think of “What’s up with you?” or “There’s something up”. For the latter, there’s an example in The Sign of Four (Conan Doyle) when one character talking about the Indian Mutiny says “The whole country was up like a swarm of bees”.
(So nobody’s tried to spot a St George or Shakespeare theme? I did wonder about a nina when I saw the second row starting with “Oh no the”, but it doesn’t seem to go anywhere after that.)
Many thanks Vlad and PeterO.
This was quite tough but wouldn’t expect anything else from Vlad. I also parsed IRAN as PeterO and I thought ASPHALTERS was great, although I didn’t realise it was a word. My only query is with HOICK as only referring to cricket in the clue. I hear it used often for football and golf (I’m sure I’ll be doing lots of it this pm). I know some of you refer to ‘definition by example’ but I would only tie myself in knots trying to explain what I mean. LOVEMAKING was also my favourite just ahead of OCCASION. I wonder if ‘Royal leper’ was yet another allusion!
Ta Vlad & PeterO for the great blog
Another great puzzle from Vlad.
Favourites were IN THE DARK, LOVEMAKING – both made me smile, THIS INSTANT, PRINCETON – both for the construction, OCCASION, for being so cleverly hidden, THRIVE, for the definition and PACKED LUNCH, for being one of the best Spoonerisms I’ve seen,
Many thanks to Vlad for the fun and PeterO for the blog.
Thanks to PeterO for parsing a couple that mystified me.
As gladys remarked yesterday, difficulty is in the eye of the solver. This one took me twice as long as yesterday’s (which fell out quite easily for me, once I had realised that all the across solutions were German words -apart from the one in the middle!). I usually find Vlad’s puzzles the most challenging of the regulars – he produces tightly constructed clues where it is difficult to see the joins. His last few I found easier to crack, but this one was more hermetically sealed.
NE the last quadrant to yield for me; DURER my FOI and GLEN the last. Really enjoyed the Spoonerism – it produced a laugh rather than a groan. Favourite was the clue for OCCASION – masterful and topical.
Nice one Jim!
yesyes @17 & Lord Jim @21: you might recall a Boatman during the first lockdown in the blog for which there was an exhaustive debate on ‘up’ as an anagram indicator. (#28139) I took the same view then as Lord Jim today: “something’s up” certainly says to me that something is amiss, awry, not right which is as good an indicator as you need.
Thanks Pflad, and Pfeter pfor the pflog. Pfleased to know you’re not pfuffering any apfer-epfects.
(“Oh no!” was no doubt Pfrichard III’s reaction on being diagnosed with pfrosopfagnosia.)
‘Is MY TRUTH a thing?’ was my first thought at 1ac, but then I remembered Oprah (yes, AlanC, I saw that too) and ‘how do you feel about speaking your truth today?’
Of course Oprah didn’t invent my truth/your truth. The Manics’ This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours is a quote from Aneurin Bevan, who (kind of) got it from Nietzsche (see here, it’s quite an interesting story).
Like others I enjoyed being IN THE DARK. Ignorance is pfliss.
Paul @13, Fiery Jack @19 – I was also an early MEAT LOAFer and started looking for things like Total Eclipse, I Won’t Do That etc – but to no avail (apart from earworms). Having got two of the first four across answers, I thought I might be in for an easier time, but it was, as for michelle @1, a tale of four quarters. I parsed IRAN as PeterO did, but like him, I thought it quite a stretch. PACKED LUNCH was one of those ‘proper’ Spoonerisms – both phrases being meaningful and used. Although hard, as many others have said, pretty much everything made sense eventually. Thanks, Vlad and PeterO.
Having spent 90 minutes in traffic to travel the 3.5 miles to drop my car off for service and then being faced with a 35 minute wait for a train home I was beyond delighted to have my Guardian and a pencil with me. Enjoyed the double dose of cricket in HOICK as HICK is also a famous cricketer who once scored 405 not out for Worcestershire. THEN was my personal favourite but there were a lot of contenders for the COTD crown today
Cheers all
Did anyone else have IRAQ (homophone I RACK) for 21A?
Great puzzle – thanks Vlad and PeterO. IRAN was a guess, but now I see your blog it makes more sense – though I think RAN[t] works better as a noun (a speech consisting of cross words) rather than a verb (to say cross words).
Thanks Vlad for a great puzzle. But can anyone explain to us why 28 A In Store is coming?
Surely if it’s in store it’s already arrived?
Shirley @31: I agree. It did bother me at the time but I forgot to mention it.
Shirley@31 & Gervase &32
Cambridge Dictionary: ‘in store’
C1
going to happen soon:
“You never know what’s in store for you.”
“There’s a shock in store for him when he gets home tonight!”
Shirley and Gervase. “Imminent” as with those heavy clouds on the horizon it looks as if there’s rain in store.
Shirley (@31): as a local ad. has it “We have a great deal in store for you” — playing on the ambiguity where “in store” means “at some point in the future” (e.g., when you choose to shop here) as well as “in our shop now”. (There’s also a pun on “a great deal”.)
Shirley@31:” Let’s see what the future has in store for us” for instance?
Reader, I solved him. Not something I can often say, with Vlad, but I stuck to it and received my reward. Maybe I’m getting closer to understanding Vlad’s internal logic, though I cannot yet be so bold as to say that everything was parsed. I will, perhaps, upgrade my setter rating from fear to respect. Maybe love will come later.
Not quite last in, but favourite clue for its role in unlocking the pesky SE corner, was ASPHALTERS. I had been convinced that I was looking for an obscure surface-acting chemical – should I go and check some detergent labels? – and the entirely different image that resulted was a joy.
Thanks all. How stupid of us not to spot that!
Similar experience to MaidenBartok @18; I found this very difficult.
Eventually survived the impalement and finished. Strangely enough, most dictionaries don’t seem to mention the connection of HOICK with cricket, with the exception of Merriam-Webster! [and Wiktionary].
I enjoyed the Spoonerism, IN THE DARK, THRIVE and DYNAMO (where I was misled at first by the ‘do’ being an upset).
Thanks Vlad for the torture and PeterO for making it all clear.
I think associating HOICK with cricket was misleading: it’s an action that can be done in many contexts both sporting and otherwise, and if I hadn’t convinced myself that it was an obscure cricketing term I would have tried harder before revealing it.
Small point, but I think the definition of SPLIT PIN is ‘metal fastener.’
Too much HOICK and hope for me today, and then try and work out the cluing. Biffing in Turn Against early on for 14 ac as I had a starter for T didn’t help at all. Did enjoy unwrapping the PACKED LUNCH, though. GLEN defeated me, so a DNF today, I’m afraid..
Like Shirley, my thanks to all for explaining IN STORE. mrpenney may be regretting the cancellation of his 25 year Ivy League alumni reunion, but my own 50 year college reunion was cancelled last year and I don’t think I am still firing on all neurones.
As usual I ground my way through from the crossers and definitions with no idea of half the wordplay. Thanks for the enlightenment, PeterO, and the challenge, Vlad.
[I’ll forgive Vlad and Picaroon the mussing umlauts!]
…or even “missing”…
[Auriga @44,45: I rather like the image of umlauts getting mussed]
gladys @40. Because the word can be applied in other contexts does not, I think, invalidate Vlad’s cuing in of it in a cricketing context.
[As a club cricketer 50 years or so ago, I was noted for my ‘mid-wicket HOICK’ and once won a tight match against the strongest team in the league by ‘hoicking’ their fastest bowler into the car park. ‘There was no call for that,’ said the bowler as I approached the non-striker’s end. I remember this as a very curious comment, as if his repertoire was too high-class and high-speed to be susceptible to being dispatched into the car park by means of a hoick – or, as I deemed it, a wristy, beautifully-timed flick.]
Thanks for the blog. Puzzle of four corners for me, completed SW,NE,then SE, but foxed by most of NW and a dnf – my truth and hoick nkh, not that that is any excuse. Wot, no theme? Ta Vlad, enjoyed the struggle, some nice cluing.
Not invalid: just misleading. I’m just annoyed with myself for revealing it.
I was convinced the ‘crook’ in 15 must refer to the ‘ill’, and so was unable to parse it. When will I ever learn?
Thanks PeterO, don’t think i have seen DO for Ditto and now realise I never bothered to parse PRINCETON. I always struggle with Vlad and on reading 1A nearly didn’t bother but glad I did – though this ended up being my LOI and thanks essexboy@26 for expanding on it.
Did anyone else spend time trying to fit little “ERN” backwards into NANKEEN (new word for me but clear once I took Ronseal approach)?
Like bodycheetah@28, HOICK brought back some happy memories with minor disappointment that the mighty Graeme wasn’t explicitly worked into the clue.
Speaking of mighty, thanks rodshaw@4 for more recommendations, I did that previous one and can see the influence on Paul (it was an odd one though and I failed to parse a lot, i think Paul can be practically Ximenean in comparison!).
Thanks Vlad, I’m a fan of lovemaking asphalters in the dark, perhaps illustrated by DÜRER (there you go Auriga@44).
[Lounging round checking blog after seeing a movie (6 Minutes to Midnight, rating B-minus) with an old mate, I said “Could you name a Meat Loaf hit?” No, she said. Me neither. But the name, no problem of course. Funny that, sort of cultural landscape thing]
[Gazzh @51 – “lovemaking asphalters in the dark” – wasn’t that a Tom Lehrer song?]
essexboy @53 & Gazzh @51: not a Tom Lehrer but sounds like a by-line for Boys From The Black Stuff
[essexboy@53 & PostMark@54, I think Jim Steinman RIP may have written it for Bonnie Tyler to sing, she gargled with the stuff after all!]
Tough but impeccably fair. Some great surfaces and plenty of smiles. Thanks to Vlad for a really great puzzle
[PM @54, BFTBS, now that was full-on gritty realism]
Tricky, but less tricky than yesterday for me with plenty of fun. Some dastardly short ones like THEN, GLEN and IRAN(Q), and I do enjoy a Spoonerism, and this one was a cracker. Lovemaking in the dark! Haha.
Thanks as ever to Vlad and to PeterO for filling the gaps.
PeterO — you have one I too many in your anagram fodder for THIS INSTANT.
“Under pressure” is an anagrind? “Up”? “Raves”? I’m with yesyes@17.
Would somebody please give the cricketing, or perhaps sporting, definition of “hoick”? I can’t be the only solver who doesn’t know the term.
Princeton frisbee
mrpenney@5 You sent me to google to find out what most other Americans apparently call a brad, which to me is a small nail.i (Is that serious hardware?) Seems it’s that thing you hold hole-punched papers together with that I would probably have called “that doohickey there.”
Your Princeton reunion also reminds me of attending my father’s 20th as a child with my parents. My main memory of that was a newfangled thing everybody seemed to have called a “Frisbee.” They got to Princeton via P’s arch-rival Yale from the Frisbie Pie Company in Bridgeport CT. Local children had discovered that the pie plates were fun to throw and the practice spread.
Valentine @59: If your YouTube-playing technology is working, you can click on this to find an exploration of the lesser known regions of the cricketing dictionary. It’s a countdown from 10 to 1, and you have to wait for No.1 for HOICK, which is then defined as ‘an unrefined shot played to the leg side, usually across the line of the ball’. (No. 10 is ‘chin music’ – something I’ve often heard referred to, and sometimes seen, but thankfully have never been on the receiving end of.)
Thanks for the blog, some nice clues but a bit more like Vlad the Impala today. Iran(t) does not really work because it has – reportedly – and there is no homophone.
[ I know some people like finding old crosswords. A long time ago , Paul and Enigmatist were competing to have the longest possible answer, using many numbers of course.
Paul managed the Spike Milligan poem – There are holes in the sky …………. – 77 letters I think.
Enigmatist responded with lines from King of the Road by Roger Miller – Trailers for sale or rent …….. 80 letters I think. Was around about 2000 I think but not really sure.
]
I always struggle with Vlad, and this was no exception, with fully ten lights still unfilled after what ought to have been sufficient time to complete. Got there in the end, because the cluing is always accurate, though hard to get into at times, so in retrospect it always looks like it should have been easy.
I see both PeterO and Boffo @15 have queried the accuracy of the clue for GLEN; it works fine for me, because if you are looking for anagram fodder and it’s a four-letter answer, it can only be the middle three letters of ‘leaving’. Mind you, it took me a couple of hours to see it! (And Mark @16 has already agreed with me in advance!)
Thanks to Vlad for the usual excruciating experience, and to PeterO for the blog – it must have been a bit of a nightmare, so well done for all the parsing.
[mrpenney @5. It’s good to see you’ve retained something from your university experience. “Hip! Hip! Rah Rah Tiger Tiger Tiger sis sis sis boom boom boom bah! ’96! ’96! ’96!” and “that doohickey there.” Very impressive. 😉 ]
[essexboy @26. I hope you’ve been able to find your dentures. 🙂 ]
Roz@61 doesn’t the homophone refer to the crosswords in the wordplay rather than the answer?
I did think that yes but crosswords is not really a homophone, just a missing space .
Bodycheetah and Roz: does ‘reportedly’ have to imply a homophone? I know it’s a frequent homophone indicator but is it not the case that this time ‘reportedly’ just draws our attention to ‘crosswords’ and, upon looking, we appreciate the opportunity to separate into constituent elements what would otherwise be pronounced as one word?
I like the Vlad the Impala moniker. Bloodthirsty, vicious beasts that they are… Like elks.
Yes it sort of works but still a bit of a stretch. Setters are allowed to miss out the space between words without any qualifier at all. Paul does it a lot with things like instead.
I meant Impala as the much more genteel cousin of Vlad the Impaler. Vlad can be rather tricky sometimes.
Roz @68: You’re right that many Guardian setters use this device, eg employing ‘indeed’ in a charade to indicate DE****ED (much loved by many of us Guardian solvers and often referred to as ‘lift and separate’). But it violates the strict ‘rules’ whereby words have to be taken exactly as they are, unless additional indication is given to segment or curtail them, and it makes Ximenean zealots foam at the mouth. This example of Vlad’s is the mildest of potential Ximenean violations, but in the strictest view of the conventions ‘crosswords’ is not the same as ‘cross words’.
It is not the same but it does sound the same, so reportedly is not the right word to use. It also depends if you think of word spacing as a form of punctuation, Ximenes allows any punctuation to deceive. Personally I prefer Torquemada anyway, as long as the clue works the setter can do anything. The clue for Iran just does not quite work.
[Valentine @59: Love that story. Of course, we still had Frisbee games on the quad when I was there, but it wasn’t a novelty then.
[Gervase @43–it’s worse than that: I’m the dreaded double Ivy. (My JD is from Harvard.) But I never cashed the supposed ticket to the elite that that grants: it turns out I have a shocking lack of ambition. In fact, I almost never talk about my resume, because it’s just not that important a part of who I am any more, if it ever was.]
[And it’s interesting how many different names there are for bits of hardware, and how many different names for hardware can mean two different things. For example, a brad can be either a tiny nail or a brass thing with two prongs that you bend into a hole punched in paper. The brass bendy thing can also be called a split pin. But a split pin can also be a thing you insert into a rod to help keep it (or the thing on the rod) in place. And that can also be called a cotter’s pin. Is that the complete picture?]
Oh, and EssexBoy, I think that “chin music” may have come to you from baseball. That’s a well known (but slightly dated) expression here for a pitch that’s so far inside that it makes the batter’s facial hair sing (with the expression implying a situation where it was thrown intentionally, probably in revenge for something).
For 21 across I had IRAQ, parsed as crosswords being a racket, which becomes rack (‘finish off’) and so raq (‘reportedly’j. For me, this works better than IRAN.
Roz@61, etc — How about this: “Vlad crosswords reportedly” becomes “I rant reportedly”. Vlad is editorializing, acknowledging that others say he rants, but admitting to nothing. And he’s having fun with misdirection. (HIS) TRUTH, perhaps.
Thanks to Vlad and PeterO.
Very late: busy day (mostly ducking behind things to avoid the virus) – but had to admire my favourite setter at his subtile best. Beat me all ends up of course (busy day) but so much to admire with a highlight (lowlight?) my trying to justify “revomiting” where LOVEMAKING was required. (I lay the blame for this at the door of MY TRUTH which is for me unfamiliar. That blocked off MODULE and while I was thinking HOICK it’s a word I’ve never seen written so the spelling was unclear.) In any event I revealed with the mien of a deacon discovering something unsavoury in the poor-box and down I went. Ah well how bad.
yesyes@17: “anagrind” is indeed (but I say this only from observation) a portmanteau word (I knew I’d work it into conversation sometime) for “anagram indicator” – I think that was your question? From this (I think) comes the delightful “anagrist” for the anagram “fodder”.
A great range of offerings this week, including two toughies. Everybody happy?
Phil@74; I see that and it was not far from my own floppy thinking – it had to be either IRAN or Iraq and I could make no sense of either.
Well having read differing views I still think GLEN was iffy. And not keen on IRAN either.
But I am never on Vlad’s wavelength.
I think my solving partner must have said at least a handful of times “Ooh, that’s clever” tonight.
Vlad is somehow always one level up compared to most other setters, although some solvers will interpret this perhaps as ‘not being at his wavelength’.
Yes, a couple of debatable clues (12ac [that said, a very nice use of ‘Vale’) and 21ac) and one or two unusual indicators (like ‘under pressure’ in 22ac).
But more than enough to compensate these ‘issues’, and to rate this crossword as five-star.
IN THE DARK (10ac), LOVEMAKING (11ac), THIS INSTANT (14ac), the superb Spoonerism of 18ac, ATTENTION (5d), the sweet THEN (6d) etc. etc.
The list goes on.
Many thanks to PeterO and Vlad.
Many thanks to PeterO for the blog and to others who commented.
GLEN and IRAN both seem fine to me.
MY TRUTH is one of those meaningless modern phrases. A synonym for ‘lie’ in many cases, I suspect.
seems like the third time this month that I have hovered between Iran and Iraq like a bemused Kurd only to get lost in the glens of the Zagros mountains. Apart from that I loved it.
An excellent puzzle. I have nothing to add to others’ comments, but I’d like to highlight the classy spoonerism at 18a. IRAN was a guess, but I now see how it works.
Thanks to Vlad and PeterO.
Enjoyed this Vlad more than usual, thanks.
No problem with GLEN for me (don’t think you’re usually told how much to take out). On the other hand, IRAN iffy IMO.
..
PostMark@14 & 67:
[ Yes, as you said, I guess you should have waited for Roz (@61/69), before feeling so chuffed with your accomplishment. (Insert suitable emoji here.) ]